In the present day and age, there is no excuse for not knowing who to market your products and services to, and what your customers want. With the advent of marketing databases and other data-driven technology, gone are the days of untargeted, unselected, and generic marketing.
A Short Historical Perspective
Before 1995, marketing was mostly done through mail and advertising. After 1995, with the advent of email technology, marketing became a little more specific. It was with the arrival of smartphones, especially the iPhone in 2007, that people truly started getting hooked to content, now easily accessible on their screens. Other smartphones cropped up in the market soon after. The smartphone revolution allowed people to carry a smart hand-held device to practically anywhere. This led to precious user preferences data being generated around-the-clock. Producing relevant content and serving it to the right people started becoming a key marketing strategy for businesses, and it still is the case.
Coming to 2019 and looking beyond it, we see that users are highly mobile with increased dependence on their hand-held gadgets. Marketing data today can be captured at every stage of the buying process. For marketers to find out what their customers want, they first need to know where to look! Data can give valuable insights into potential customers’ social media activity, browsing behavior, online purchases, investment patterns, pain points, need gaps, and other critical metrics. This type of marketing data will be at the core of any lucrative marketing strategy.
Basic Strategies for Marketing Data Collection
Do not go blindly collecting data! There is an insurmountable quantum of marketing data available out there, and you mostly need only a relevant chunk of it. Data collection should depend on the nature of your business and the stage in which your company stands in the development cycle. For example, if you are a startup about to launch, then you need to collect a wide variety of data for market research purposes. This can include:
- Target group’s email addresses
- Social media preferences
- Buying habits
- Preferred payment methods
- Average incomes
- Customer location
Firms in business may already have the aforementioned marketing data. Still, they constantly need to keep updating upon these categories while also collecting data for new customers. They will also need to focus on pursuing valuable customer feedback and gaining insights on the existent product’s value through data.
Additionally, for startups, SMEs, and large establishments, keeping records of all types of communication with customers is critical. This will allow them to tailor an effective communication strategy with the clientele.
Numbers Don’t Lie
88% of marketers use data obtained by third parties to enhance their customer reach and understanding, while 45% of businesses use it to acquire new customers. It was also found that companies that employ data-driven personalization improve their ROIs on marketing by five to eight times. Marketers who exceeded their revenue goals were using data-powered personalization techniques 83% of the time.
Without a shred of doubt, marketing data is imperative for promoting products and services to the right people in 2020 and beyond.
Benefits of Marketing Data
Let us understand in depth the benefits of marketing, which is data-driven.
- Personalizes Marketing Strategies – Marketing data is the starting point that allows marketers to create targeted marketing strategies through personalized communications. With carefully analyzed data, businesses are better informed as to when to send marketing messages. Timely accuracy allows companies to elicit an emotional response from consumers, which encourages positive engagement.
53% of marketers claim that the demand for customer-centric communication is high.
- Enhances Customer Experiences – Businesses that provide customers information that is truly useful for them will stand in a league of their own. Why vigorously promote a sports car to a 75-year-old automotive buyer? Marketing data-led campaigns are targeted towards specific consumer needs. This enriches the customer’s experience. Marketing, to a large extent, is still a game of guestimates, and marketing data allows businesses to make high-quality educated guesses. Data-led marketing can provide consistent information across all consumer communiqué. It allows for an Omnichannel of sorts to be created where whether you contact them via social media, personal interactions, or over the phone, consumers receive the same relevant pieces of information and undergo the same marketing experiences across all channels.
- Helps Identify Right Engagement Channels – Data-powered marketing allows companies to identify which marketing channel performs the best for a given product or service. For certain customers, product communication through a social media channel may evoke the desired user engagement and behavior. Leads generated through Facebook may respond differently than leads generated through the Google Display Network (GDN). Marketing data also allows businesses to determine which content format works best on the identified marketing channel, be it short copy, infographics, blog posts, articles, or videos.
- Improves Content Quality – New data keeps churning in from target customers daily, and marketers must carefully analyze it. Marketing data informs businesses to better tune or modify their pre-existing marketing strategies based on the ever-changing needs of their customers. As Steve Jobs said, “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backward to the technology. You cannot start with the technology and try to figure out where you are going to sell it”. By understanding users’ dynamic needs better, not only will companies engage new customers but will also retain the old ones. Content quality is crucial for both customer acquisition and customer retention.
You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backward to the technology. You cannot start with the technology and try to figure out where you are going to sell it.
Steve Jobs
- Helps Keep an Eye on Competition – Marketing data can also be used for observing and analyzing your competitor’s marketing strategies. Businesses can figure out the categories of data studied by competitors and predict the direction they will choose to market their products. A company that uses data to study its competitors can choose to device a counter-strategy that will allow them to come out on top. Using data to study competitors also allows businesses to improve their current marketing practices and to not commit the same mistakes that were committed by their competitors.
Turn Insights into Actions
Marketing data provides actionable insights. To improve marketing campaigns, you need to know as much as you can about your customers. Detailed orientation is the key to success in the years to come. Implementing data-led marketing solutions can completely change the way you do business. No matter how insightful a marketer is, they cannot perform miracles solely on hunches. They must be empowered through the supplication of marketing data for superior results.
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